Hi,
This is a short one. Well, short for my posts, that is. Hi KLM!
First off - thanks to everyone that came up to Portland. I'm getting the
impression that everyone had a really great time, and there were no
disasters or anything like that. Well there was that guy trying to unload
a dead TR6 from a trailer at the panorama shot just as the 150 car
caravan was arriving at the park, but somehow even that worked out and we
got the trailer out of there in time... despite the fog rolling in - or
as the Mainers might say: "there was a breeze blowing in from the ocean
laden with humdity".
There were some cars that got bombarded with bird droppings, but most of
us that got hit were reminded of the Gary Larsen cartoon entitled "a
bird's view of the world" and everything has little "targets" attached to
them... so it was laugh-able. I guess I'd better wash my car to get the
bird-turds off... NOT.
Weather was awesome. There were a few sprinkles on Thurs. afternoon, but
it was never too hot, and the combination of shade and the what seemed
like a continuous sea-breeze made it very comfortable in the shade.
All the moving events went off fine, although for some reason the TSD
rallye route was complicated due to the local folks in Windham or one of
the other towns near Sebago Lake "trenching" the road... basically making
the road a one-way only path for a stretch. Despite that, one car came in
with only 77 points - on a 50 plus mile rallye. WOW.
Tours to LL Bean and Kennybunkport went off without a hitch, although
there were some complaints about route instrucions from a few folks. A
few folks even stopped by the DeLorme map folks up there in Freeport.
The autocross was fast and hot. FTD went to none other than Mark Bradakis
(finally) although he had to do it in the John Lye machine instead of
"killer" - mostly because "killer" was 2000 miles away in Salt Lake City.
Second fastest went to John Lye and this writer was third fastest overall
in a basically SCCA DSP TR6. Not bad considering I don't have "all the
stuff" I can put on the car for that class... in fact I was thinking
about asking Charles Runyan for a discount on a Quaiffe, but thought
better of it later in the day. Good thing too, my MC is rather maxed out
due to the R210 Goodyears that I bought last week for my "race car". Most
impressive on the autocross course had to be a tie between Vern Brannon in
the ex-Ken Slagle TR8 and Dave Hutchison and his beautiful Triumph Italia
2000 - Dave managed to get high marks in "style" with a few "three wheel
turns". Impressive indeed - this is markedly _not_ a VW Wabbit! Vern was
able to effortlessly leave black streaks anywhere by even the slightest
application of throttle. There's gotta be quite a lot of HP under the
bonnet of that car!
Lots of folks were at the "lobsta bake" on Peakes Island, a good time was
had by all, as near as I can tell.
The "show" went off without a hitch, although we did have a Sports 6 that
had clutch problems due to the relatively big hill located between the
Panorama picture shoot and the show field. There was also a minor traffic
jam as all the people in the back row figured that it was smarter to back
off the field than to follow the instructions of the folks directing
traffic... hence the traffic jam.
But heck - most of them were from the "megaplex" area, so they would be
used to traffic jams. And fortunately there was no "road rage".
Bud Rolofson did manage to help out a guy whose TR6 started running _very
rich_ when trying to leave the pan-o-rama shot, and was able to produce a
rather large "black cloud" as well as some impressive flames from the
tailpipes. WOW. But Bud helped the poor owner out, and the car was
running smoothly in order to get over to the show. Great job, Bud!
There were some questions about judging in the Concours, and this show
was laid out a little differently with the participant's choice cars
intermingled with the cars to be judged. This also led to some confusion
in the voting for P.C. as a few cars that were entered in concours also
got PC trophies. Go figure. But it was nice to have the cars intermingled.
The banquet was actually one of the highlights of the event as keynote
speaker Richard Langworth, noted author and one of the founding members
of the Vintage Triumph Register managed to tie stories about downing
beers in Michigan somewhere with the actions of Sir John Black and the
rest of the "triumph people" into a nice tale. Very entertaining. This
was followed by the usual awards presentations including a special "VTR
Recognition Award" that was presented to Mark Bradakis for his efforts in
"promoting Triumph stuff"... at least that's what I think I said! Great
job Mark!
The "Sweat Equity" award was presented to a fellow who drove his TR250
from San Diego, CA - or at least from the Southern CA region. Very
impressive! I believe the gentleman's name is Herman van der Akker, but I
could be wrong on the spelling. The winner of the Ken Richardson trophy
was absent from the banquet, but was "discovered" on Sunday morning - he
had been busy making a minor repair to his car because it was being used
to do some more exploring of the Maine coast for the remainder of this
week, and missed the banquet as a result. Looks like the right person got
that award. I did notice his hands start to tremble when Ken Streeter told
him that he was in fact the recipient and that we really were not kidding.
I'm at a loss as to the "Carolina's Cup" recipients, but they were
certainly deserving, as they (of course) "trophied" at all the driving
events (I think). And I'm pretty sure it was Daryll and Beverly Floyd.
Between the Sweat Equity, Ken Richardson awards and the Carolina's Cup,
Mary Wood got up to award the Dennis Riley/Bill Wood trophy to Joe
Worsley. In short, Mary's husband Bill had passed away earlier this year
from injuries suffered during a fall from a ladder. Mary was very praising
of the letters and cards and e-mails that folks from all over the world
had sent to Bill during his convolesence and then to Mary after Bill
passed away. VTR decided to re-name the trophy, and Joe was very touched
by the award, as he and Bill were close friends. During Mary's speech,
I'll tell you what - there wasn't a dry eye in the house - it was a very
special moment.
And with that - it was time to start saying "see you again next year in
the other Portland". When I hit the hay at 1:20 AM, there were still
folks in the lobby of the hotel saying goodbyes etc. Sunday morning,
folks were up early and most had departed the hotel by 10:30 or so. I had
to "do an errand", and when I went to get the TR6 to drive home, mine was
the only Triumph left on Spring Street, which had been closed to public
traffic for the duration of the event... it was a Kodak (tm) moment, for
sure - but the camera was somewhere else.
I'd like to thank everyone who came out to Portland, ME, and I'd
especially like to thank everyone that gave us some time in pulling this
one off. It was a "real dandy", and if you weren't there, you missed a
really great time.
For me, I can't believe it's over. It went by in a blink, despite the 3.5
years of planning meetings and pouring over details and the semi-frantic
nature of making things happen at the event - I wish the event had been all
week long! Oh well.
Start planning for next year and Portland, OR!
Note: for those of you interested in the pan-O-rama shot, we'll be doing
a mailing directly to you with details on obtaining the shot. We'll also
post a version of the shot on the "unofficial" New ENgland Triumphs web
site and we'll notify the "lists" when that takes place - probably early
the week of 8-August-1999.
regards,
rml
p.s. best off line joke: "Is Bill from St. Louis in the house??"
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